The present invention relates in general to heater assemblies. In particular, the present invention relates to heater assemblies with an improved insulator support structure.
It is known to use in-line thermostats with electric heater assemblies whose open coil elements are supported using ceramic insulators that are retained in position by a metal rod completely or partially encircling each ceramic insulator. Insulators supporting the in-line thermostats are themselves supported by metal rods as well. Moreover, the metal rods supporting the insulators are welded to a metal frame.
Certain open coil electric heaters, however, have improved systems for supporting the insulators retaining the heater coils. One heater assembly includes insulators held in place by metal clips welded to frame bars. Another heater assembly includes insulators supported by metal clips clinched to T-shaped cross section frame bars.
These heater assemblies, however, have limitations when using in-line thermostats. For example, a limitation for the heater assembly having insulators retained by clips welded to frame bars is that two different types of ceramic supports are needed. As a result, the heater assembly includes two different types of insulators and two different types of metal support clips. Special handling, specialized tooling and fixtures, non-standard manufacturing procedures and increased inventories due to higher part counts, for example, result in higher manufacturing cost than otherwise would be realized with more standardized parts.
The heater assembly having clips clinched to T-shaped frame bars is subject to these same limitations. Moreover, clips presently used to retain in-line thermostats cannot be attached, in an operative manner, to T-shaped cross section bars. Accordingly, heaters having in-line thermostats and T-shaped cross section bars are not presently feasible to manufacture because clips used to retain the in-line thermostat cannot be mounted to the T-shaped cross section bars.
One embodiment of the present invention provides a heater assembly, including a mounting structure, a securement structure, an insulator support structure, a conducting structure having a first portion and a second portion, a terminal structure, and a thermostat structure. The securement structure cooperates with the insulator support structure and the mounting structure to releasably and fixedly secure the insulator support structure to the mounting structure. The terminal structure is coupled to the first portion of the conducting structure, and is used to deliver power to the conducting structure. The thermostat structure is coupled to the second portion of the conducting structure. The insulator support structure is configured to cooperate with both the terminal structure and the thermostat structure to fixedly support the terminal structure or the thermostat structure in position.